While we celebrate International Woman’s Day, on the 7th of March 2016, spiritual organisations all over the world celebrate Mahashivarathri with much aplomb. A day representative of womanhood and the other a night representative of the merging of Shiva & Shakti energies, the two primordial masculine and feminine energies. One created by us and the other created by the Adi-yogi, the origin point of all we know today, and marked by a night of everlasting love, dance, and celebration.

Known as the night of Shiva, Mahashivarathri is the darkest night of the month, and one with much spiritual significance. A modern day mystic, Sadguru says “On this night, the northern hemisphere of the planet is positioned in such a way that there is a natural upsurge of energy in a human being. This is a day when nature is pushing one towards one’s spiritual peak.” It is very beneficial to keep the spine upright through the night in order to allow the natural upsurge of energies.

As we live our lives engrossed in the mundane, our priorities seem to have become so lop-sided that we do not recall when we sat in solitude last. In the words of Carl Jung “Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” This is an opportunity to open up our sensibilities to dimensions beyond the physical, to connect with the Universal energy. By being wakeful on this night, there is a possibility to create the transcendental state of ‘Being’, by merging the active with the passive, the intellectual with intuitive, Yin enveloping Yang.

It is said that we cannot sit in meditation everyday; this is the one night that the spiritual seeker can wake the divinity that is within. For thousands of years, on this sacred night, rituals were conducted for the well being of all.

Let us use this night to unravel forth our spiritual intelligence which already lies within. It arises forth, in moments of ecstasy, in spending time with Mother Gaia, in giving to those who need, in being recklessly passionate, in love within and without. While we celebrate womanhood, let us celebrate divinity, which is esoterically linked to feminism. Let us celebrate being-ness, which is universally present. Let us create rather than destroy. By being ‘awakened’ and not just ‘wakeful’.